How does a 28-year-old
amateur rated 2129 topple one of the best players in the country? I've been
trying to answer that question for the last few days. In an age when it's not
uncommon for a 13 year old to be a Grandmaster, I'm starting to feel old as a
chess player. One of the only explanations that I can come up with for my
performance is that for that one game I was completely on fire, like an NFL QB
who throughout the course of a game always hits his receivers in stride and
doesn't miss his reads, kind of like what Michael Vick did the other night
against Washington.

I haven't been able
to devote as much time to my personal chess development recently as I work
full-time as a Financial Analyst for a brokerage in midtown Manhattan and run a
chess teaching company that I recently started (http://www.tachess.com,
e-mail: [email protected]). I also spend a fair amount of time with several
private students, two of whom are brothers that are 6 and 9 years old who are
rated around 1400(!) and 1300 respectively. I am predicting great things from
both of them as they have a level of understanding at such a young age that I
sometimes cannot fathom!

While I haven't spent
time as much time working on improving my own skills as I would like, I have
tried to attribute my incredible game to several factors.

1)Having roommates that are great chess players. I am
fortunate to live with some very talented chess players, IM Dmitry Schneider
and FM Andrei Zaremba. I try and ask them questions about games that I have played and all of
the advice that they offer me is not only very candid, but extremely helpful. I
feel like all of the general tips I have received definitely helped my
understanding of certain positions (I mean it can't hurt right?).

2)Andrei recommended an iPhone app called Chess
Quest. It was developed by GM Yudasin and has several hundred very difficult
puzzles. I have been solving these puzzles on my daily commute on the 6 train,
and I feel that my calculation skills have improved exponentially. Frankly it's
the only time that I have for chess!

3)Not worrying about losing rating points. Sadly, one
of the habits I haven't been able to kick is that I usually worry about losing
rating points when playing games. While playing GM's, I don't have to worry
about that because I won't lose any points if I lose the game.

4)Rohan and Neev, two of my private students, have
made me improve my overall chess game. The better that they've gotten, the more
that I have had to prepare for each lesson. I review fairly advanced concepts
with them every lesson, specifically endgames, and that has definitely improved
my game.

Without further ado,
here is the best game that I have ever played, held at the Eastern Chess Congress on 11/13/2010. GMs Alexander Stripunsky and Michael Rohde won the tournament. I'm going to apologize in
advance if my analysis isn't top notch because I didn't use Rybka. I feel that
it's more beneficial to provide readers with my thoughts during the game
instead of some dry computer lines.

1. e4 e6
I played the French exclusively before dropping it from my repertoire
several years back. I played it for so long that I got sick of it. After losing
to Kudrin several months ago in a Sicilian, I decided to try out the French
this time around and see what he had prepared to face it. Frankly, he's
probably more knowledgeable than me in both openings, but I feel much more
comfortable in positions arising from the French defense. 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.e5
Nfd7 5.Bd3 c5 6.c3 Nc6 7.Ne2 Be7!?
It's not the most common move in the position, but seemed fine to me at
the time. I'm still a little rusty with these lines and probably should've
played something like Qb6 which is most likely the correct move. 8.Nf3 cxd4 9.cxd4 f6
One of my former coaches constantly drilled the importance of playing f6
in the French. It's essential to undermine white's strong center at all costs. 10.Nf4 Ndxe5!
I can't believe that I had the stones to play this against a very strong
GM. After this move, the game will go into virtually uncharted waters. Kudrin
spend the next 25 minutes coming up with a response. I was semi afraid of Nxe5
fxe5 Qh5+ Kd7 dxe5 but then I saw g5! To be followed by Nxe5 and Bb4 at some
point which would keep the position unbalanced enough to give me some chances.
IM Justin Sarkar approached me the morning after the game and asked me
if I prepared this move! He was mildly surprised when I told him that it was
inspired over the board. This the only playable move in the position. I wasn't
about to play 10. Nb6 and let Kudrin grind me down. 11.dxe5 fxe5
This is probably the safest way for White to continue. 12... Nxe5 13.Qh5+ Nf7 14.Bxh7 Bb4+ 15.Kf1 Qf6!
This was my favorite move of the whole game. It looks like I have no
defense to Ng6, but if he were to play Ng6 here I would follow it up with Bc5,
where he would be in serious danger of getting mated.16.Qg6 Bd7 17.Qxf6
gxf6 18.Bd3 Ne5 19.Be2 Rc8
A strong GM once told me to always make threats. This is a fairly simple
threat of getting two pieces for a rook, and it also gets the rook on an open
file, which is usually a good thing. 20.Nd3
I was pretty happy when this move was played. His knight on f4 was
deceptively strong and I was very happy to trade it off.20...Nxd3 21.Bxd3
e5
I need to use the advantage of my pawn mass in the center.22.f3 f5 23.Be3 Bc5
I can't let his bishop start to wreak havoc.24.Bxc5 Rxc5 25.Re1 e4
26.Bb1 0-0!
I guess it's never too late to castle, although it's amusing that I'm
doing so while not having any pawns in front of my king! It is the best move in
the position because it breaks the pin, and the rook indirectly pressures the
enemy king. I had to check my score sheet to make sure that I hadn't moved my
king or rook!
I was looking at Kd2 as well, but I think that it loses due to d4, and
on fxe4 fxe4 bxe4 I get Rf2 in and it's pretty close to mate.
I played 28...f4!
I saw that his king would go on a little walk in this line and figured
that at worst I would have a perpetual somewhere if he managed to not get
mated. 29.Kd4 Rc4+ 30.Kxd5 e3
31.Be4 b6
I'm closing in on his king. 32.g3
I feel like this is his first blunder in the game and it allows me to
close in on his king. I thought that he should've played b4, sacrificing a pawn
to prevent my rook from getting to c5. 32...Rc5+ 33.Kd6
This proves to be his decisive mistake. At this point of the game, I had
10 minutes left on my clock. I saw a perpetual check with Rd8+, Re8+, Rf8+
where if his king were to ever run all the way to g6, I would have Be8+ winning
the game. I started to look for something more and 5 minutes later I found the
stunning 33...Kf7!! which decides the game on the spot. White has no way
to escape mate.34.Bd5+ Kf6
and White resigned here because they're going to get mated next move
unless they choose to play Bc6 which delays the inevitable by a few moves.

I can't begin to explain the state of elation that I was in after this
game. I couldn't believe that it had happened! A lot of fellow tournament
participants came up to me and congratulated me on my effort which was an
incredible feeling. I'd been playing chess since I was very young and never
thought that I would defeat a Grandmaster!

As for what's next, I have always had the goal of becoming a master. I'm
fairly close now, and this win will make me try and make time to play in more
tournaments. I know that I still have a long away to get there, and will
definitely need to improve my endgame and tactics if I want to make the jump.